Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- When Gbemiga Omotoso bought a
Samsung tablet computer last year, he handed over his cash to a
man in a van. There was nothing shady, though, about the
transaction. It’s part of online retailer Jumia’s attempt to
adapt to the unique challenges of selling in Nigeria.

With many of the country’s 160 million residents suspicious
of paying online -- yes, they get those dodgy e-mails, too --
the Lagos-based retailer wins over skeptical shoppers by
accepting payment on delivery and offering free returns.

“It’s very important that people know it’s not a scam,”
said co-founder Tunde Kehinde, 29. “Even though they want to
buy, trust is still a very, very big issue.”

Jumia and local rival Konga.com have taken a page from the
playbook of Amazon.com: delivering electronics, clothes, and
even refrigerators to the front doors of Nigerians. Shopping
locally has usually meant higher prices, less selection, and
often sitting in traffic for hours to get to stores, which rely
on generators to cope with power outages almost daily.

“There’s a lot of appetite for consumption, but supply is
terrible,” said Jeremy Hodara, founder and managing director of
Africa Internet Holding, an investor in online businesses across
the continent and a shareholder in Jumia. “It’s expensive and
cumbersome to buy abroad, but if there’s no choice, that is what
people do.”

Berry Wreaths

In the lead-up to Christmas, Jumia aims to boost revenue by
40 percent each month through December. Items featured in the
site’s holiday section range from berry wreaths to MAC lipstick
to kids’ bikes for 11,995 naira ($75).

On a recent November day at Jumia’s warehouse -- a stadium-size building down a muddy, potholed road in a Lagos commercial
district -- employees pulled items from the shelves, then
stuffed them into delivery vans or piled them onto motorbikes.

Jumia has received $75 million in funding since its
inception, including seed capital from Berlin-based Rocket
Internet. The company has 600 employees and also sells in Kenya,
Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and South Africa. Although not yet
profitable, Jumia is bringing in “a couple of million” dollars
a month in revenue and expanding at almost 20 percent monthly,
according to Kehinde and Ghanaian co-founder Raphael Afaedor,
both Harvard Business School graduates.

Shopping Securely

To combat fears of online fraud and to educate Nigerians
about shopping online securely, the company has a direct sales
team of about 200 in cities such as Lagos and Port Harcourt.

They wear outfits bearing Jumia’s logo and hold impromptu
shopping sessions in businesses, churches, and homes, answering
questions and using tablet computers to demonstrate how to
order.

“There are people who are open to online shopping --
people who have traveled or have lived abroad,” Afaedor said.
With others who are skeptical, “it takes a bit more effort to
get people to change their behavior.”

One person they will be delivering to again is Omotoso. The
31-year-old technician in Lagos was won over by the service
after buying the tablet and plans to use it next for Christmas
shopping -- and now he’ll pay by card.

“They are making life very easy for us Nigerians,” he
said, adding that he doesn’t have time to tackle daily
gridlocked traffic to shop for Christmas treats. “They also
have quality, they don’t just sell anything.”

Eager to win more sales from Nigeria’s oil-fueled economy,
which is expected to grow more than 6 percent this year and 7
percent in 2014, according to a Bloomberg News survey of
economists, Jumia has a fleet of about 200 vehicles.

Almost two-thirds are motorbikes, which are easier to guide
through traffic jams. To thwart robberies, the last deliveries
are at 7 p.m.

Building Amazon

At some point, cash-on­delivery -- especially for big-ticket items like fridges -- may not be needed. The number of
payments in the country made by mobile phone more than doubled
to 2.4 million in the first half of 2012 from the same period a
year earlier, while Internet payments rose 9.3 percent,
according to the central bank of Nigeria.

For now, it’s just another quirk of doing business in an
emerging market. “Here you are collecting cash and reconciling
payments almost like a bank desk, here you are building a
logistics company,” said Afaedor. His co-founder Kehinde is
quick to ask, “How many times can you say in your life you get
to build an Amazon?”